The invention relates to the field of training devices and, more specifically, to the training of individuals in their recognition of various sounds. The embodiment that will be described in detail is for the training of users of a hand-held sonar device.
The sonar device makes very distinct sounds when operated in its intended underwater environment, sounds that have shades of variation and slightly discernible differences that are not easily shared by instructor and trainee underwater. Learning to recognize the sounds and distinguish them one from another is essential if the trainee is to use the device to locate and identify underwater objects without the benefit of visual contact. Even when the presence of an object is detected, the sounds that the diver will hear when he uses the sonar device and that the trainee needs to experience, depend on the range scale to the object, the diver's position within the range, and the object itself. It takes a well-trained ear to decipher the nuances in the repetitive "ping" that comes from the device in order to distinguish targets from other objects, classify a target as to type, and estimate its range.
Other sound related devices require the acute sensor perception of an astute listener to not only detect the differences in sometimes minimal variations of what they are hearing, but also to discern from perhaps a plurality of indicators, those that are significant from those that are not, and the meaning of each alone and in combination. Expertise is essential both for the identification step and the interpretation step. Such devices are found in the medical field where, for example, a stethoscope is used in the unintrusive examination of the heart and lungs, as well as during the taking of a patient's blood pressure. Additional devices in this and other fields in which the sense of hearing is involved to detect, discover, discern, distinguish or dicipher will be recognized by their users. For each, the present invention may be adapted.
The prior art of low-cost video graphics and pictorials in games and training devices is represented by the optical laser videodisc system of U.S. Pat. No. 4,490,810 to David C. Hon for Automated Instruction, Game and Data Retrieval System. Disclosed therein is an automated interactive system having an optical laser videodisc player unit. A videodisc record is used on which are recorded segmented groups of graphic and pictorial video information data interspersed with segmented groups of system control and programming data. Also, included is a television video display unit, a control processor and a user command/response unit having manual user input controls of variable functions. There are variable labelling means to indicate the current function as established by signals from the videodisc record. The processor receives short segments of programming data from the videodisc record and distributes information signals from the record to the other units in accordance with the program.
Sound simulators are represented by the compact disc system of U.S. Pat. No. 4,749,354 to Edward Kerman for Interactive Audio Teaching Aid, and by the processor controlled tone and noise generator system of U.S. Pat. No. 4,781,594 to Wilbur B. Metcalf for Sound Simulation System. The patent to Kerman discloses an interactive compact disc system that is adapted to have a teaching mode in addition to an entertainment mode, either is selectable by means of a mode switch. A predetermined aural response is recovered from predetermined randomly accessed storage on the digital disc, in response to the keystroke entered by the user. Each key is associated with a predetermined track location on the compact digitial disc. The keystroke generates a unique character code used by a microprocessor to address a track encoder read only memory that provides a look-up table for the memory location that contains a control code used to derive the signals required to select the chosen specific discrete audio segment from the compact digital disc. The patent to Metcalf discloses a composite sound generator wherein an assemblage of single tone generators and random noise generators are processor controlled to produce a realistic, multiple channel, audio environment. The assemblage includes frequency programmable tone generators, programmable tone attenuators and programmable random noise attentuators.